Friday, December 19, 2008

The prez and I have been going some rounds lately. I used to tell Julie that there's no way I'm gonna make it through two terms of George W Bush without him doing me actual physical harm, and most likely death. Well, I never got drafted but I did lose my job due to a struggling economy back in August, and once I found the best job I'd ever had, the economy hit them too, and Baldy has found himself jobless once more. I REALLY liked that job, George. Really. And I just had a baby. And it's the holidays, George. You've won you a couple rounds. Luckily today is 12/21, and if I can hold out for just one more month without being killed, hopefully Mr. Obama will help me out in one way or another... preferably by buying something off my etsy site. Honestly, my table got it this little round of buzz here at Industrial Design Served, here on Kelly Vanhook's site, and on an Etsy Treasury site (which has expired)... assuming it all has to do with Etsy choosing it as part of their Modern Design Gift Guide. I'm down with free advertising. And now I have nothing to do with the time on my hands, except make a table for you, a lamp for you, a wooden skirt for you over there, and anything your heart desires, Mr. President Elect. Anyone who wants to hire a baldman with a couple tools in his garage is welcome to contact this one.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

So just before all this big baby hubbub hit, I thought we'd need to have a little side table for the rocking chair in the nursery, and had to come up with one stat.

Several months ago, I went to an estate sale and picked up a bunch of these desktops that were originally attached to Eames chairs that ended up going overseas. The overseas buyer didn't wanna pay the extra shipping to get the desks too, so this guy is ready to unload em on the first baldman he sees.

I hit my fave Breed and Co to get some dowel rods, and used some old wrought iron hairpin legs I had in the garage, and whipped up this double decker Eames desktop side table in a couple hours. It seems to be doing the trick, as it's now covered in burp cloths, blankets, water glasses, breast pumps, boppies and an assortment of other items that were never in our house pre November 24th. Anyway, if I get some more hairpin legs, I might attempt to sell this table on Etsy?

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Not to toot a baldhorn, but if you are looking for one of the "Hottest Designers on Etsy" in the realm of Modern Design, you've come to the right place. The Etsy Gift Guide picked this little gem of a table to tack on to the list. Now if someone would actually listen to said guide, we'd be honkin instead of tootin.

Monday, November 10, 2008

So this vulture flew directly at me then landed on our house the morning I decided to take off the front door, and put some fresh windows in it. My superstition made me quiver at first, but by the end of the day, my rad door and I were eating his dead carcass instead of the other way around.

This is the interior side of our door. Check out that wicked 3D waviness... Almost tempting one to dive into its pool of swirling gold. Also a reason I didn't really want to get a brand new door.

In Door School 101, you learn that the exterior side of the door is actually smaller than the interior side... helps with that smooth swinging action. (I've resisted making a dumb "swinger" joke here).

ANYHOO! After our supernice hippie professor neighbor helped me lug this monster to the backyard, I went to town. David Erwin over at Crestview Doors wrote these great instructions on how to cut big holes in your door without freaking out... they also include perfectly drawn out, scientifically formulated window placement options that are based on the type of window shape you get. I chose the Ledgestone layout, which seems to go best with our mail slotted door that we can't really remove.

Basically, after tracing the trim onto the door, you whip out a drill with a fat bit, drill a couple holes, then stick a jig saw down into said holes, and cut out the rectangle. Again, there's this diagram on the instructions that lists a cut sequence to make a pretty fine rectangular hole.

After gittin jiggy, I did have to do a little fine tuning to get each of the kit pieces in... better that problem than realizing I've cut me some oversized holes that vultures can easily fly through to eat the corpse my preggo wife turned me into when she found out I've ruined our front door. Catastrophe diverted!

It got dark upon my bald head, and I wasn't done- dadgum Central Standard Time. Final steps are like this here. Put the trim on the exterior side of the holes, then flip your big boy door over... squeeze a bit of silicone in the trim, and put the glass in it. Grab the other side of the trim, and screw it into its exterior counterpart. I found that putting a flat surface under the door provided some needed pressure so that ole screw won't just push the trim out on the other side of the door. The predrilled screw holes are counterbored, so once they are screwed together, you can cut off a piece of dowel rod, stick it in the bored hole, and sand er down so you don't have to look at that ugly screw head.

Julie and I found this stain that matches our door color pretty well. We purchased 13 ketchup packet samples of the stuff and that was plenty. Then our good friends the Taylors came over to help us rehang the big sucka. SO NOW...

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Over the weekend, I slid back into the Crestview Doors wacky workshop to bust out my own set of door lite kits.

If'n you are in the market for a wicked new door, but feel like, you know... you HAVE a pretty good door, and just need to jazz it up a bit, THIS might be your answer. It's a fun filled day of DIYness that, honestly, those boss neighbors of yours were doing in the 50s probably every weekend. Just get some windows, cut some holes in your door, and put em in!

If you are lucky... and if you beg and plead... the baldman can make yours for you personally. Maybe I'll work up some sort of bald stamp to put on it... maybe my face across your window.

The stuff looks pretty sweet. By "stuff" I mean my face. Check back for the finished product. Check back say... tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Man, here's the thing of it... first of all, who does Scarlett Johansson think she is getting married at 23?!? I mean, I know I'm older than Woody Allen practically (and married), but... I love beaches, balls, cherries, looking at the sun... c'mon Scarlett!!!!! You've broken my bald heart.

Tonight is Oct 22nd... not only is it my good friend Allen's b-day, but it's also one day LESS than a month from our bebe's due date. Come Nov 21st, Bald Man Mod Dad takes full effect. Tonight I had this sad solo Octoberfest meal involving grilled chili cheese dogs, bbq chips, and a hearty Fat Tire beer. I says to myself I says, "Self, maybe next year, you'll be in Berlin for Oktoberfest!", and self says to me back he says, "Fat chance, fat tire fat sucka... have a double dose of those chips and call it a year... on second thought... I think you've had enough chips."

So I drag my fat, bald, Scarlettless body into the soon-to-be nursery, and put some final touches on this chest o drawers I've been workin on... It used to be mine growing up, and before that was my uncle's growing up in the 50s. Actually his daughter just had a baby on Friday. She's 6 years younger than I. I'm not sure what all this means, but I'm off to buy a Trans Am with T tops tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Yous know there's a rad documentary playing at the Austin Film Festival tomorrow nite called Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman? The fantastic geezer who photographed all the modern homes since the beginning of modern homes- such as this here Case Study House 22 pic he took. DOUBLE CHECK THIS OUT! Julius Shulman is gonna be there in person at the ripe old age of 98, and baldman's friend's dad, Bill Merriman (space city architect) is gonna do a Q & A! Check that link above fer show times/locations and the like... but the Q & A is going to be on 10/16 at the Rollins Theater... 7pm- see you there!

And for those about to rock... The Bloody Tears are playing a show at the Scoot Inn on friday with another great band called Ripe. Get a double dose of bald if you're nasty.

Amy Coe brings you her crib. It beat me senseless. Almost literally. The sides crashed down on my bald pate, and scraped my new changing table in the process...

What? New changing table? Right brah... First time using paints and finishes for the green minded/newly born. Low VOC style, and mineral oils. Actually, the velvit oil is my new fave finish... easy to apply and sand, and only needs one coat. and you can eat off it. Anyone need a wooden microwave? I'm yer baldman.

Friday, October 3, 2008

So back in May, we had us a litte hail storm. It made our house look like this.

After State Farm screwed us out of several thousand dollars, we decided to just bite the siding bullet, and yank down (read "have skilled pros yank down") our old crummy vinyl siding that was put up lord knows when... 70s some think? Who knows. Anyway, since the siding was nailed directly into the original 1937 wood siding, and it had quite a few spots of rot, we are going hardie plank style on the sucka.

Upside to having an old house is the abundance of solid wood used. One could pick any spot on any wall of our house, and hang a Caddy Escalade by a thumbtack without fear of it falling to the ground.

The other day, this cute young girl was going by the house, and I saw her look straight at our house and say OUT LOUD to herself, "OH MY GOD." Guess the pad ain't really raking in the chicks.

Other upside is we now have insulation up in da crib. Our next door neighbor told me he was thinking about getting this similar look for his house, but I told the brah... we already have the pink fuzzy thing, and everyone will know who the original PF was. Bring it university professor. Real men live in cotton candy abodes.

Monday, September 29, 2008

On day two of my new job, I put together a dust collector. A few days later, we put together an entire dust collection system. At the house, I've been making a changing table sorta contraption. Luckily, I have this awesome dust collection system installed as well. It's my sweaty bald head.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

So we were really lusting after Daniel's chair, but Ebay came through for us. Some Canucks had this VERY similar Danish (DAN-ish?) rocking/reclining/high backed lounger AND it was red, which goes with the bebe room theme... though we've been told red ain't no bebe room themed color. I guess they do it dfferently up North. Please forgive the hippie No VOC paint and vegetable oil based finish in said pic (and old hunks of door and jamb... you are welcome for the thin sliver of really rad lamp i'm unna make a veneered lampshade for).

I mean, for real. These pics are dark and all, but did you notice that reeeeediculously rad arm rest into chair leg? C'mon. Baby Claire gonna get her ass rocked off in that bad boy.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Mon, sorry bout the title, but you know... It's way too wickedly fitting. So Baldy got laid off... from a job he wasn't that jazzed about to begin with. THEN, this fantastic thing happens, and Wham Bam, Thank You Christiane (and David), Crestview Doors hires me to work full time! We'd been talking about me doing some fun part time drawing stuff, but now it's all full time fun. Building bitchin doors! Like these here... Anyhoo, if you don't know about these characters, you're welcome for introducing you to the coolest front doors you'll ever peep through. And they will ship to your doorstep. Oh, you gotta door? First of all, it ain't all that, and secondly, they are rolling out these awesome DIY style doorlite kits, so you can slap in your own windows wherever you see fit. Maybe yer pooch needs his own view slot? Done. So yeah... things are picking up in Baldsville.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Welp (as Ma would say)... I finally got the boot from my job. Made it through the first couple rounds of lay offs, but the rest of us left were told we could stick around... we just won't get paid. That's cool. Guess there's plenty around the house to do these days, and if I'm not getting paid, I'd rather have my wife as my boss. She's got long legs and carrying my child as well, so it's not a bad trade off.

Got this monster to take care of. This is the current state of the future baby zone. It's a catastrophe. The upside? Lots of built-ins for storage. The downside? Behind every door (except that top corner spot) one will find boxes and boxes of unsold Licorice Tree merch. So lots of figuring out to do. And I'm going to wicked up the doors of these built-ins (see below).

I mahoganied up some of the doors, and I think they look pretty nice. Thinking about doing the tall doors in a light maple veneer too, but that would qualify as a "purchase-post-layoff", and maple veneer isn't at the top of the list of absolute must haves. Probably located in closer proximity to "let's get Rock Band" on that list than, "we need some bread".

We also got this Amy Coe crib delivered last week... Babies R Us said we were the first to buy one at their location. I'm chalking that up with buying the first kitchen from the Round Rock Ikea location. Anyway, the crib is not in this state currently. It's in a giant flat box, about 900 lbs, and in a room that's NOT the baby room. I'll keep busy. And I AM looking for another job. Mostly doing that actually... with the help of some fab friends and fab dads of friends. Also updated my portfolio with some CAD stuff I've done. Carbonmade is currently winning my Carbonmade Vs Behance head to head portfolio-off. Need a Bald Man? They come cheap.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

So the Baldman has him an autoCAD certification, and it couldn’t have come at a better time, as my full time place is crumbling rapidly. In an effort to maybe get some of my portfolio stuff online, along with that ole table and woody light I made, I’ve set up a couple different accounts to see what happens. They are a little arty probably, but whatchagonnado? Set up one here at Behance which I talked about before… also set something up at Carbonmade, which has one CAD project on it so far. Any ole way, universal worldwideweb BALD domination is eminent.

Friday, August 8, 2008

This exhibition is coming to the Blanton Museum in February of next year. A ways away, but I'm thinking it might be worth a look-see. Have to get a baby sitter. Weird... MAYBE start the bebe off right and take the little lady. Here's what the Blanton say:

Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture At MidcenturyFebruary 22 – May 17, 2009Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture At Midcentury takes a look at the broad cultural zeitgeist of “cool” that influenced the visual, graphic, and decorative arts, furniture, architecture, music, and film produced in California in the 1950s and early 1960s. The exhibition, organized by the Orange County Museum of Art, includes a jazz lounge; a media bar with film, animation, and television programming; a period art gallery of hard-edge abstract paintings; selections of art, architectural, and documentary photography; and an interactive timeline that highlights examples of California, national, and international culture and history in the 1950s. Birth of the Cool examines the dynamic community of artists who overlapped and interacted in Southern California at midcentury—Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Charles and Ray Eames, John Lautner, Richard Neutra, Helen Lundeberg, and others who played a germinal role in the development of this iconic style of high modernism.